After saying that, Devin went back inside his car and sped away.
He had to make things clear with his future girlfriend.
When Ashlyn made it to her apartment building, it was still relatively early in the night. She was the only one in the elevator.
As soon as she texted Jessie, the elevator doors slid open. She made her way down the long corridor and turned the corner to her apartment. To her surprise, Devin was standing at the door.
“Ashlyn, did you give a random stranger my number just now?”
Her heart skipped a beat when she met his handsome eyes, but Ashlyn managed to keep up a calm facade. “Oh, just now a young man asked me for my phone number. I couldn’t remember any other person’s number at the time, so I gave him yours. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course, I don’t mind. I’m honored you can only remember my number.”
For a moment, Ashlyn didn’t know what to say.
As Devin spoke, his body, which was leaning against the wall leisurely just now, suddenly straightened up. “Since I helped you deal with a pesky suitor, why don’t you invite me in for a cup of coffee?”
Ashlyn had to admit that his request was reasonable, so she acquiesced.
With a beep, Ashlyn unlocked the door with her fingerprint and then pushed the door open. She stood at the entryway and changed into a pair of slippers. Then she took out the slippers that Fred had worn once and handed them to Devin. “These were my friend’s. Do you mind?”
Glancing at the pair of men’s slippers, Devin frowned. “May I ask the nature of your friendship with him?”
Ashlyn rolled her eyes and ignored his question. Instead, she strode into the kitchen to make two cups of coffee. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
She didn’t expect that Kendal would make a move so soon.
Devin accepted the cup of coffee and took a sip. “Don’t worry about it. After all, you’re my future girlfriend. I don’t mind you using me to fend off random guys.”
After a pause, he added, “Actually, I couldn’t be happier.”
Devin said he wanted to have a cup of coffee, so he did nothing else but that. When his cup was empty, he excused himself and left.
Leaning against the sofa, Ashlyn stared at the door that Devin just closed. After a while, she withdrew her gaze and went to her room.
Although he was known to be a playboy, Devin had been acting like a gentleman.
After taking a shower, Ashlyn texted Jessie a quick message and then turned off the light to go to sleep.
The following morning, Ashlyn woke up even before her alarm clock went off.
Because the sun hadn’t climbed up on the horizon yet, her room was dark.
Ashlyn took out her phone and checked the time. It was only seven-fifteen, but she had a good sleep last night. Now that she was awake, she decided to get up and make a hearty breakfast to treat herself.
Thanks to her marriage to Gordon, Ashlyn, who grew up without doing any chores, learned how to run a household on her own.
Otherwise, Ashlyn would’ve only been able to fry eggs or microwave porridge for the rest of her life.
The end of February was nearing, but it was still quite a cold morning in Bluepond.
The weather wasn’t as nice as it was yesterday, but this didn’t spoil Ashlyn’s good mood.
“Good morning, Miss Ramos,” Talia greeted politely when Ashlyn arrived at her office.
Ashlyn put down her bag and smiled at her assistant. “Good morning, Talia.”
Noticing that Ashlyn was in a good mood, Talia passed the meeting agenda to her and said lightly, “Miss Ramos, Mr. Perkins wants you to have dinner with someone tonight.”
“With who?”
“The representative from East Village,” Talia answered promptly.
Ashlyn pursed her lips slightly. “I see.”
Did Elvin just plan to walk away from an unresolved problem?
After mulling over it for a while, Ashlyn said, “Go and find out what Elvin’s up to.”
Ashlyn was appointed by the headquarters. It wasn’t the first time that Elvin made things difficult for her. He was the one responsible for this project, but now that they were experiencing problems, he left it to Ashlyn.
Fairway Group was planning to construct an amusement park in the New Bay Area of Bluepond. New Bay Area was vast, but unfortunately, there was a village sitting right smack in the center of the design for the amusement park. If they bypassed it, the integrity of the amusement park would suffer. Fairway Group had already issued a document in October of the previous year, asking Elvin to negotiate compensation for the villagers for demolishing their village.
Ashlyn and Gordon got divorced last November. After she went back home, Stevie mentioned in passing that the problem regarding compensating the villagers hadn’t been settled down yet.
At first, the agreed compensation amounted to eight thousand dollars per square meter. After all, the village was located in a remote suburb, so the land shouldn’t be too expensive. Among the thirty-five households, twenty-eight had already signed the contract. As for the remaining seven households, five of them asked for ten thousand instead of eight. The last two households even asked for apartments in the center of Bluepond, demanding one apartment per person in their family.
As the two parties reached a stalemate, the problem wasn’t solved yet.
And then later, some households who had already signed the contract went back on their word and wanted more compensation.
This was the third time that Fairway Group had discussed the compensation plan with the villagers. The plan wasn’t decided by Ashlyn. It was clear that Elvin just wanted to see her fail the negotiation by leaving the problem to her.
Talia immediately understood what was on Ashlyn’s mind. “Copy, Miss Ramos.”
Ashlyn nodded and fell silent as Talia walked out of her office.
Elvin had successfully ruined her good mood.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed. Ashlyn glanced at its screen and saw that Jessie had sent her a link.
Ashlyn picked up her phone and tapped on the link, only to find an error message. So typed out her reply to Jessie, asking, “What did you just send me?”
However, to her surprise, Jessie didn’t answer her question. Instead, she asked, “Did Devin go to your apartment last night?”
Ashlyn didn’t want Jessie to know what happened last night, so she said casually, “Devin had something to tell me.”
“Your relationship with him is being discussed online. The link still worked when I sent it to you, but now I guess someone has had the news deleted.”
Then, Jessie sent another text. “What did Devin want to tell you? It must’ve been important, or else he wouldn’t have gone to your apartment. Ashlyn, is he your secret boyfriend now?”
“Nonsense,” Ashlyn replied with a laughing emoticon.
If she was in a relationship with Devin, she would not feel the need to hide it.
Plus, she was focused on work and making money—not finding a boyfriend.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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